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quarter panel re-skin

Guy knows next to nothing about cars and is replacing a quarter panel. Overall, I find it pretty inspiring. My 86 has some rust. By some, I mean a ton. I've played around in my head with what to do about it. I have never done any body work short of swapping parts and I have never tried to weld. I don't want to just bondo it up so it can slowly get worse and I've been thinking about finding another car and swapping everything over.

But this guy makes it seem like anyone could do it with a little bit of cash and some common sense. The biggest hurdle would be finding rust free parts. The cheapest way to do this would be to buy another car, then I'm right back to just swapping everything over to a new car as being easier. I applaud guys like damiac who just do it, but I'm not sure it would be worth it in the long run.

My car is toast. It was bondo'd up who knows how long ago. It has a 84 front end and bondo on the roof, both rear quarters, and only two bolts holding the bumper in. I know it has had a pretty interesting history and if I stripped it down, I think I'd be in way over my head.

Basically, I am trying to decide if I get another car to drive while I fix this one, or gut mine of the serviceable parts I want to keep and start over. Decisions.

Originally Posted by jcassity

I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.

if you find another rust free car, you have to decide which is more work... swapping many welded panels is a ton of work, especially if you have to remove them from another car, without damaging them... there are a crap ton of welds on an entire quarter panel. you could just replace the lower parts and save a lot of time and money

I'm leaning towards just waiting and finding a more rust free car. We will see what 2016 brings.

Originally Posted by jcassity

I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.

Chasing rust can be a full time job. I had a 1968 buick skylark convertible (only 1700 made) and there are less parts for them than there are for our cars. Every time I cut into something I found something more that needed to be addressed. Like I said, a full time job and it just gets tiring replacing and fixing a bunch of stuff that you'll never see (like floor pan supports, etc.)

My '88 has a couple of small holes. They'll be big holes by the time I cut them out. Even still, I'm pounding patch panels instead of replacing the entire quarter. You got good advice above - make sure you are starting with a solid foundation or at least something that has high sentimental value to you.